High in the sky, a bloated red sun shone down on a city. Unlike the cities of Earth or Remnant, its buildings weren't made of steel, brick, or concrete. Instead, white crystal towers tinted with blue reached up into the air in an array of straight lines and exact angles. They easily pierced clouds and sometimes even touched the edge of the planet's atmosphere. It was a casual display of this advanced civilization's technological capabilities.

The city hummed with activity. Vehicles hovered by with strangely human-like passengers. Various metal and crystal objects flew around the buildings on unknown tasks. Unrecognized glowing shapes travelled through the city as well, sometimes appearing in midair and at other times emerging from the buildings, vehicles, or even the inhabitants of the city. The bright objects dimmed and vanished when they reached their destination.

Then, the view of the wondrous city disappeared. A child and a man were in a room in the shape of an ellipsoid with walls of the same white-blue crystal as the city. There was a crystal podium in front of them, the child had his hand placed on it while the man watched on.

The child closed his eyes. After a minute, he frowned and pushed his hand harder onto the surface. He pulled back and looked to the man.

"I can't do it, Father." The language wasn't English, yet somehow the viewer could understand of their words.

The man smiled. "That is fine. Few are able to achieve a successful mental interface on their first attempt."

"I know, but I've practiced with our home control unit. Why is this so much harder?"

"Because at home, you are using the subroutines made by others and designed for your convenience. Using a personal control unit is different. It requires a specific state of mind with three components: careful attention to detail so that it will do exactly as you desire, an absence of doubt that it will perform as you desire, and certainty in that what you desire is what you truly desire."

"I have the specifications in mind, Father. I've done the math and conceptualized the spatio-temporal aspects of the task. I know that it will do what I want, I've seen it do it before. And the final step, I am sure it's what I truly desire."

"If what you just told me was true, then you would be able to use the crystal." The man placed his hand on the podium. In front of them the crystal floor opened up and in a show of light, an image of the city was projected before them. "You must be lacking something."

The child made a strange gesture, taking three fingers of his right hand and tapping his left palm. "Fine."

"Good. Now try again, Jor-El."

Clark opened his eyes and pushed himself up onto a sitting position on the floor of the cave. He shook his head, getting rid of the last remnants of sleep. That had been a strange dream.

He noticed the crystal in his hand was giving off a faint light, its glow dying by the second. Probably not a dream at all then, although why Jor-El would use such a roundabout method to teach him how to use the crystal rather than just telling him was a mystery.

A quick glance upwards with X-ray vision showed that it was early morning. Arthur was still asleep, their lights turned off so that it was dark to human eyes.

It was an hour or so later when Arthur woke up. Clark had been sitting while holding the crystal and trying to communicate with it. With a yawn, the young boy pushed off his blanket and stretched.

"Good morning, Arthur," Clark said. He turned on a few lanterns so Arthur could see.

"Good morning."

"What do you want for breakfast today?"

"Mmmm . . ." The young boy thought while looking at their stack of food. "Eggs and toast."

"Alright, I'll get some ready. You go clean up."

Arthur ran over to the 'bathroom', the section of the cavern where they had buckets, water, and soap to wash themselves with. Like the toilet, there were drains in the rock to lead away bathwater.

Meanwhile, Clark opened up a carton of eggs and took out two slices of bread from a bag. He took one of their pans and heated it up. "Any particular way you like your eggs done?" he asked.

"Sunny side up!" Arthur's answer echoed back.

Clark cracked open two eggs which sizzled when they hit the pan. He added the amount of salt and pepper which Arthur liked. When they were done, he picked them up with a spatula and set them down on a plate. For the toast he browned the bread directly with his heat vision.

When Arthur came back, he happily ate up his breakfast.

"Do you have any other stories about fighting the Grimm?" Arthur asked.

Clark grinned. It seemed that Arthur's home town of Higanbana didn't have much excitement, the young boy had been eager to hear about his time as a huntsman. "A few. Have I told you that I was there during the attack on Vale?"

Arthur's eyes widened. "Not yet. Wow, you were actually there?"

"Yep. I was actually out of the city when it started, but I came in to help as quickly as I could. There were plenty of Grimm I'd never seen before there besides the usual Beowolves, Ursai, and Nevermore. Like the Griffons and the dragon."

Clark recounted the tale of the night while omitting certain personal details. He hadn't told Arthur that he was the Dart either, so instead he just pretended as if he'd fought like any other huntsman in the battle. It was a good way to pass time here in the cavern, and Arthur paid rapt attention for the entire story.

"Arthur, do you want to be a huntsman?" Clark asked. He wouldn't discourage him exactly, but there was a need for a fair warning. It was a dangerous profession.

The boy shook his head. "Nope. I want to be an explorer."

"Oh, anywhere specific you want to explore?"

"I want to take a ship and discover some new islands, like Oswald Penn. I want to learn about huntsmen too though, since I'm gonna need them to help fight the Grimm that I find there. Maybe I can build a new city and they could name it after me! Like Arthurton."

Oswald Penn. Before Clark had known about Ozpin's situation he might not have even made a note of that name at all. Now though, he had to wonder . . .

Clark smiled. "That's a great dream, Arthur."

\\\\\

It was cold, with the snow falling and the wind blowing, yet Ruby could hardly find it in herself to care as she walked out of the house. She and the others had found this place, Brunswick Farms, yesterday and taken shelter for the night.

There had been dead bodies in the beds of several buildings, which was really creepy, but what choice did they have? It was either the farmhouse or the snowy forest, and they'd chosen warm shelter. They'd discussed their next steps last night too and decided that they should at least do some investigation in the morning about the dead bodies, but none of them had mentioned it after waking up.

Everything was just so tiring. They could hardly bring themselves to even check to see if any of the vehicles could be useful. Down the road, Yang and Uncle Qrow had brought a truck out to look over but Ruby could tell that their hearts weren't in it.

Ruby headed towards a well in the road. She set the Relic on top of the circular wall and slumped down beside it.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she saw a thin black appendage tip it over and pull it into the well. Five minutes? Ten?

Even then, it still took another few moments for her to comprehend what she'd just seen. Some Grimm had just taken the Relic!

Ruby jumped to her feet and sped to the house with her Semblance. Once she shoved the door open she yelled "Team RWBY! Everyone! A Grimm just took the Relic!"

The Relic that Clark had gotten for them by giving himself up. 'What was I thinking!" Ruby berated herself. She had been chosen to guard the object and she'd just watched as it was taken!

Uncle Qrow and Yang had rushed over once they'd seen Ruby's outburst. "What happened?" her uncle asked.

"I-I was by the well, and I set the Relic down for a few minutes. Then, part of a Grimm, a-a finger or something took it. And I don't know what but something's wrong about this place! I took too long to react, and I've been exhausted the whole day."

"Yes, I've noticed that as well," Ozpin said. The others shared a look that said they'd also felt the drain on them.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Well shake it off. Let's go find the Relic," Qrow said.

They left Oscar and Ms. Calavera in the house, and Ruby led them to the well. She jumped in. There wasn't any water left, only a few patches of ice. She held up Crescent Rose as the others dropped down behind her.

"What kind of Grimm was it?" Yang asked.

"I don't know. What kind of Grimm has thin long fingers?" Ruby asked. None of them answered.

They walked around the emptied groundwater tunnel, weapons ready. It didn't take long to find the Grimm, the first sign of them was their glowing red eyes. A pack of them, and few features visible in the low lighting.

"They-they almost look like people," Blake said. Right, she could see in the dark as a faunus.

"You see the Relic?" Qrow asked. It was strange, the Grimm weren't attacking yet. They were moving, their eyes didn't stay in the same spot and Ruby could catch hints of long black limbs and bone white chests swaying, but there was no sign of hostility yet.

"I do. There, in the middle of them." Blake pointed.

That was when the Grimm struck. Several elongated limbs swung at the team. Ruby deflected two of them easily, fortunately their thin bodies and limbs were as weak as they looked.

"Kill them and get the Relic," Uncle Qrow jumped into the pack of Grimm and started slicing. The Grimm screamed in response, a sound far too different from the usual animalistic roars of the usual Grimm.

Ruby kept a watch on the others as she shot into the horde of Grimm. Weiss summoned a Boarbatusk and sent it to tear into them. Yang and Blake were shooting too so Ruby switched to following her uncle's example and cutting them up with her scythe.

Then, the Grimm shrieked. Ruby had been mid-jump when the sound had hit her, and her body was sapped of strength. She stumbled once she landed. It took serious effort to stay on her feet. Everyone else was struggling as well, Weiss was on one knee and pushing herself up.

"What-what was that?" Weiss asked.

"Dunno, but don't let them do it again!" Qrow said. He shook his head and leaped back into the fight. He killed the Grimm in a frenzy of stabs and swipes, desperate to kill them all and get the Relic before they screamed again.

Ruby and the others fought harder as well. They must have killed dozens of them, but even so there ended up being enough remaining to let out another strength-stealing screech. This one lasted for longer and left them flat on the floor.

It . . . it was getting hard to remember what they were doing here. What had been so important that they'd run into these tunnels? Why did they need to get out?

Why do anything at all? It was just so much easier to lie here and rest. Before Ruby's head fell to the ground she saw the others dropping too, they must have felt the same way.

Red-eyed black-and-white figures approached, and Ruby knew there was something wrong about that, but she couldn't remember what.

"Ruby! Ruby!" A pair of distant voices called out for her. After a second Ruby remembered their names, Oscar and Ms. Calavera.

"Get up Ruby!" Ms. Calavera shouted. "Remember! Remember your sister, your uncle, your parents! Remember how you love them. Remember that you have to live and get back to them!"

Her parents? Why was Ms. Calavera talking about them? Mom died years ago, but Dad was back on Patch. Ruby was a bit sad she wasn't with him, but Yang and Uncle Qrow were right here.

They were right here, about to be killed by Grimm.

"No! Get away!" Ruby pushed herself up and screamed back at those terrible monsters. Light poured out of her eyes. It covered the tunnel, revealing the Grimm around them in all their too-human-like horror and then reduced them to dust.

She got to her feet. Her team had seemed to recover too and Uncle Qrow was also getting up. She saw Oscar and Ms. Calavera in one of the side tunnels. They waved at them and gestured to go over to them.

"Here! There's a way out into a cellar here!" Oscar shouted.

There were still Grimm in their way. Ruby called into the power that had been inside her and let it out again. The Grimm in their path dissolved under the glare of the silver light shining from her eyes, including the one which had been holding the Relic. Ruby rushed over, picked it up, and then headed to Oscar.

Her team did the same. Problem was, so did the other Grimm which had been under these tunnels. They weren't especially fast, but even with her newfound control over her eyes Ruby didn't want to risk their deadly shrieks.

Once they all poured into the doorway, Oscar shut it behind them and locked it.

"We need to get out of here!" Ms. Calavera said. She was waving some book in her hand, and had surprising speed for an old lady with a cane as they ran up the stairs.

"Is the truck ready?" Uncle Qrow asked.

"Give it a few kicks and some life will sputter into it," Yang said. "Either that or we run out because I'm not staying in this farm with those things."

Yang took the driver's seat. Oscar and Ms. Calavera took the seats next to her. Everyone else climbed into the back of the truck.

"Come on. Come on!" Yang shouted at the truck as she tried to start it. It was old and battered, but the engine eventually started running and the tires turned. Yang drove them out of the farm. Where to, nobody seemed to know yet, but that was fine as long as it wasn't here.

"Those Grimm were called the Apathy," Ms. Calavera said, holding up the book. "They're what happened to Brunswick Farms and why we found those bodies in the beds."

She explained what she'd found in the diary. How one of the farmers had unwittingly attracted a pack of Apathy Grimm when he'd only intended to use a few to conceal the farm from Grimm. Ruby shuddered, the thought of ending up like one of those bodies in the beds somehow chilled her more than the freezing weather.

There was more for Ruby to ask though. "Ms. Calavera, how did you know what I needed to do to use my eyes?"

A grin appeared on the old woman's face. "Ruby dear, how do you think I got so good as the Grimm Reaper?"

\\\\\

Clark's strength was fading. There wasn't anything here that could put up meaningful resistance against him, but he felt it as he moved around. He had to regulate his strength constantly so he didn't leap off with each footstep, so he could recognize the slight increase in the strength he used to walk. It had also become more difficult for him to react to the phantom's speed the last time he'd visited.

Clark's powers were charged by the sun. Somehow his body ignored the conservation of energy to provide him with his powers, but after five days of staying in an underground cavern it seemed that he was reaching the limits of his energy storage.

It was useful information in case he ever went without sunlight for a long period again, but the more pressing fact was that losing his powers now would leave him and Arthur defenseless.

There was no more playing around with his powers. Clark still talked and tried to comfort Arthur, but he also spent much more time focusing on the crystal. The dream he'd had a few days ago was still fresh in his mind, a far more solid memory than his other dreams. Even though Clark was sure it was a sign from Jor-El, it felt like he still wasn't getting any closer to using the crystal.

Clark was sitting on the ground with crossed legs with the crystal in his hands, his eyes closed to focus. Arthur was sitting silently with one of the books Clark had convinced the phantom to bring for him.

The words Clark's grandfather had spoken echoed in his mind. There were three things he needed to use the crystal.

Careful attention to detail so that it will do exactly as you desire.

Clark remembered Jor-El's voice. The ethereal timbre his voice possessed when it emanated from the crystal. He noted Jor-El's knowledge too, every bit of what Krypton had retained after hundreds of thousands of years of history. Not all of it obviously, but surely there had to some information Clark could use to escape.

An absence of doubt that it will perform as you desire.

In some ways this was the easiest. In others it was the hardest. Clark had seen Kryptonian technology do amazing things. A Kryptonian crystal had grown an entire fortress in seconds, a Kryptonian ship had flown him through the stars to the safety of Earth, and Kryptonian technology could travel back in time and reach across parallel universes. This crystal in his hands even contained a copy of his biological father's mind.

However, Jor-El had never been agreeable. Whenever they'd talked on Earth, it was usually at cross purposes, and Clark's attempts to communicate with him on Remnant was spotty at best.

This time though, he had to believe that Jor-El would speak to him. They should be united against the phantom, after all, and every previous attempt had been performed without the knowledge Clark now possessed from his dream. This time it would be different.

It would work.

Certainty in that what you desire is what you truly desire.

Clark had considered this requirement for a while before realizing what it meant. If he wanted to talk to Jor-El just to defeat the phantom or to go home, then Jor-El wouldn't answer. Clark's intent had to match Jor-El's, he had to accept his Kryptonian heritage and work to learn about it and preserve it.

No more wishing he was human, that attitude had to be left behind. If he hid his powers or identity as an alien anymore, it would be because of practical considerations of his and others' safety, fear of how others would react couldn't be a factor anymore.

He was Clark Kent, son of Jonathan and Martha Kent. That would never change. But he was Kal-El too, a son of Krypton.

So he did want to talk to Jor-El. Even if he'd been on Earth, even if the phantom hadn't been a problem, knowing what he now did Clark would still want to talk to Jor-El.

'You have done well to take that final step, my son.'

Clark opened his eyes and stared at the crystal. It now gave off a soft light and looking deeper he could see plenty of activity within the device.

'Thank you.' Clark answered.

'I am aware of your situation in this world, and there is much I have to speak to you about, but I also realize the urgency of your current imprisonment. So yes, there is a way you can use this crystal to trap the phantom.'

'That is good, please tell me.' Clark knew that he normally would have been more excited to learn that, but it seemed that in this state of mind he could consider things calmly and rationally. He might have been afraid of his mind being altered like that, but it felt right. This might not be an appropriate mindset for all things, but it was helpful now.

'I will. There is an issue, however. It will require you to get close to the phantom with the crystal, which he will allow only if you say you are using it to bring him back to Earth. You will need to lie to him, but he can tell when you are lying more easily than anyone else.'

'You're right, only the truth will work. So will you bring us back to Earth?'

'That would be far too risky even if you were at the height of your strength. No, you will have to lie to him, and there is only one way to do that and have him believe you.'

'How?'

'You will have to believe in the lie yourself,' Jor-El answered. 'This crystal can reach into your mind, you can use it to alter your own memories. That is what it will take to contain him.'

Even in Clark's newfound calm, there was still a sense of unease. That was comforting, as it showed that his emotions hadn't been erased, just controlled and properly applied.

Jor-El sensed his troubles. 'Yes, even in Kryptonian culture where this technology was millennia old it was highly regulated. It was only permitted to be used by those with a degree of maturity and wisdom that was rare in any species. Yet in your circumstances it will prove to be necessary, will you at least give its use due consideration?'

'I will.'

'Good. This is how you will use it. . .

Jor-El detailed his plan to capture the phantom. It was a decent plan, but it had a few points of weakness. However, Clark couldn't think of a way around them either since there were too many unknowns. The most important one being the phantom's speed.

There was a good chance that the crystal could set off its trap fast enough to overcome the speed of even a wary solar-powered Kryptonian, but Jor-El had no reliable probability estimate. Still, it was the best option they had.

The entire discussion had taken a split-second with Clark's speed, but he spent the next few hours until the phantom's return mulling over the plan. He came up with a few ideas and asked Jor-E a few questions to see they could work, but there wasn't much he could do to improve the core of the plan.

Just before the phantom's next check-up, Clark closed his eyes and edited his memories.

'Do it.' He told the crystal. Just a temporary edit, his true memories would be returned after the phantom was captured.

There was no sign of any response, no tingle in his brain or answer from Jor-El, but he maintained his certainty that the crystal wouldn't fail him.

Clark opened his eyes again and waited for the phantom to return. Soon, they'd return to Earth.